An excellent afternoon at the Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence today watching two films about the life of Puyi, the last Ching Emperoror, who was born 110 years ago in 1906.
The Museum is located in Lei Yue Mun Fort, built in the 1880s by the British on top of a hill overlooking the narrow straight between Hong Kong island at Lei Yue Mun and the Kowloon mainland opposite. The Fort never saw serious action until the Japanese invasion in 1941 and there are still some preserved and battle-scarred buildings in the grounds.
Anyway, today's visit was to see the exhibition 'From Son of Heaven to Commoner: Puyi, the Last Emperor of China.' There were a number of exhibits belonging to Puyi such as a dragon robe worn at his coronation, his record player, his personal journals and a travel bag. Most interesting were two biographical films featuring archive film, each running for about an hour.
Aisin-Gioro Puyi became Emperor at the age of three following the maneuverings of the infamous Empress Dowager Cixi - who did not live to see him on the throne - but was overthrown in 1911 at the Revolution. Brought up in isolation from his family, deliberately isolated from other children, including his siblings, dominated by the eunuchs, force-fed a diet of education suitable to support his role as emperor and deity, bowed down to by everyone, not allowed outside the Forbidden City, it is perhaps no surprise that he grew up a very mixed-up young man.
The films bring to life the turmoil and confusion of the early years of this century with warlords battling for power, uprisings erupting regularly, the Japanese plotting and politicians cutting unprincipled deals.
For 12 days in 1917 Puyi was restored to the throne by a warlord but then thrown out of the Forbidden City in 1924. Following this Puyi began more than 20 years of sucking up to the Japanese in the hope of being restored by them to the throne. He sheltered in the Japanese Concession at Tianjin for a few years before agreeing to be the puppet emperor of the Japanese state of Manchukuo (which made some sense as Puyi's national origins were Manchu) but as the years went by and the Japanese increasingly pressured him to conform, he became increasingly distraught.
His traitorous support for Japanese ambitions at the expense of Chinese suffering and self-interested collaboration with them ended with the overthrow of Japan, his capture by Red Army troops in 1945 - while he was trying to flee to Japan. He was taken to testify at the War Crimes Military Tribunal in Tokyo and, after several years under (quite comfortable) Russian house arrest, he was repatriated to China and for ten years underwent 're-education' at the Fushun War Criminals Management Centre.
From 1959 to his death in 1967, Puyi served as a regular citizen, working in the botanical garden, and then as an editor, while writing his biography. At age 56 he married a hospital nurse and enjoyed a happy domestic life. (In contrast, his first wife and Empress Wanrong, died in hospital in 1946 from malnutrition and the effects of opium withdrawal.
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